Portuguese did not want to take on an ‘easy’ job elsewhere in Europe.
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Chelsea head coach Jose Mourinho has revealed that he took a pay cut in order to return to Stamford Bridge last summer for his second spell in charge of the west London club, according to reports in the Daily Mirror.
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The self-styled Special One left La Liga giants Real Madrid at the end of the previous campaign, despite the fact that the Portuguese still had three years left to run on his big-money deal at the Santiago Bernabeu.
And Mourinho has now claimed that he had plenty of other more financially attractive offers on the table when he departed the Spanish capital, however, it was his “love” for the Blues and the exciting project that was presented to him when he spoke to the west Londoners’ billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich that convinced him to take on the role.
“If I was here for me, I wouldn’t be here,” said Mourinho ahead of his club’s huge top-of-the-table clash with arch-rivals Arsenal at the Emirates in the Premier League on Monday night.
“Because teams, to be successful immediately, I had a lot of them in my hands. I had Real Madrid. I left them because I wanted to, not because they wanted me to.
“I had other clubs in other countries where it would be easier to go and find an ‘easy’ job immediately. If I was here for financial reasons, I wouldn’t be here getting a lot less money than I had at Real Madrid, where I had three more years on my contract.
“I didn’t come here because the job was easy, or because I had a team ready to attack the title, or because I was coming here for the best contract of my life. It’s the worst of my last six years.
“I’m here because I love the club, I love the project. It’s a different project. I also love the country in terms of football, but the main reason is I was explained what the club wanted of me, and I liked that.”
Mou retuned to the Uefa Europa League holders last June on a bumper four-year contract worth a staggering £8.37 million a year, a deal that makes the 50-year-old the second highest-paid manager in world football behind Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola.
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